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Maumelle Boy, 12, Wins Jeopardy

By Bill Lawson

Arkansas News Bureau

Maumelle resident wins $40,000 on ‘Jeopardy!’

Sent: July 31, 2012

By Bill Lawson

Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Matthew Cline, 12, of Maumelle was all smiles during a watch party for the television show “Jeopardy!” on which he competed earlier this summer for a taped show that was broadcast Monday.

Cline seemed relieved that he could finally reveal that he had won $40,801 as the show’s top winner. When he left Los Angeles during the show’s taping, he, his mother and his adopted grandparents, Fred and Mary Peyton, all had to sign confidentially agreements that they wouldn’t reveal details of the show until it was broadcast.

“I promised I wouldn’t talk about the show until it had aired and I kept that promise. Integrity is something that’s important to me,” Cline said.

But there’s one more secret Cline is keeping. He only competed in one show, but at the end of the weeklong children’s special series on Friday, an overall children’s winner will be announced.

In previous years, the overall winner received an additional prize, but this year the winner will get only the title, Cline said with a smile.

He said he studied for months before his appearance.

“I spent all summer studying, reading everything I could find,” Cline said. “But my grandmother, Mary Peyton, would read the encyclopedia to me at night. That was a big help.”

Maumelle supporters who attended the watch party in Little Rock said they were proud someone from Arkansas, and especially a 12-year-old from Maumelle, did so well on the show.

Many said they were not only proud of his intelligence but his poise on the show.

After the broadcast, Cline said he had calculated how much of a wager on his Final Jeopardy question he needed to beat his competition.

Cline said he knew the answer — Thomas Edison — but when his nearest competitor’s Edison answer was said to be correct, he knew he’d won. He had to keep his composure and not reveal he’d won.

When asked how he planned to spend his winnings, Cline said, “First I’ll give some to church and charity, then I’ll put most of it in a trust. But I would like to have a new telephone.”

He was one of 10,000 children nationwide who applied online last year, and then he went to Houston to try out and was one of 15 to make the final cut to appear on the show.

He said it was a long, involved process, but it was well worth the effort.

If the smile on his face Monday was any indication, then the seventh-grader was proud of his accomplishment.